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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Walls In Your Home Should Express Who You Are

The walls in our home are like huge white canvas's waiting for us to be inspired and put something on them. We have been here two and one-half years and I have only painted one wall in the living room (a pretty sage green), and the lower half of one wall in the kitchen, it's painted sort of a textured barn red. I haven't painted any other walls and I haven't hung any pictures (other then in my kitchen), because I didn't want to throw just something on the wall. To me that would be as empty as hanging one of those picture frames that comes from the store with a stock image of some family already in it. I want my walls to express who I am. I want something kind of funky-creative, because that is who I am in my core.

My daughter gave me the painting below for my last birthday...I call it my Chicken Picasso. She found it at a thrift store and called me before buying it because she wanted to ask if it would offend me if she bought me a gift from a thrift store. I'm sure she knew it wouldn't, but she asked anyway (sweet girl). She said she saw this painting and immediately thought of me, and since my birthday was coming up...

I love it! Not just like it...I LOVE It! Interestingly the background color in the painting is identical to the color I painted under the chair-rail. She hadn't seen my wall paint yet, so this was just meant to be I think.

The other day while my husband was out of town working, I was having lunch by myself at the Wildflower Bread Company. If you are from Arizona, then you probably are familiar with this place. They bake fresh Artisan breads everyday so the place always smell so yummy. They make delicious sandwiches, pasta and soups and serve them with a huge hung of fresh bread, or in a bread bowl...mmm!(Ok stop thinking about that bread!) So anyhoo, while I am sitting there eating my lunch, I am admiring the pretty flower prints sprinkled throughout the restaurant on their walls, their menu boards and on the table tents. I suddenly feel a spark of creativity.

Being a child of the 60's these pretty flowers just resonate with me. They remind me of the fun times growing up in the 'Peace, Love & Hippies' era. I like that feeling, and I get the idea to put some of them on the wall behind our bed. We don't have a headboard (and don't want one), so this would be perfect! On my way home I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a few sample paints in pretty colors that appealed to me, and a few sponge brushes. That evening I painted the wall...then I started thinking, "gee, I hope Terry likes them." He is a child of the 60's as well so I figured he probably would. If not, then we could just paint over them with that boring white canvas looking paint. What do you think?

This picture was taken before I finished my second coat on the pink flower on the left.

They are really big, (for perspective our bed is a king size and the purple flower is just over 2 feet wide), but quite simple. And I love them. It makes me feel calm and brings a smile to my face every time I walk into our room, or when I crawl into bed.

When Terry came home a few days later, I was away from home at my dog training classes, so he happened upon them when he was putting his luggage away. I didn't tell him before he got home what I did, I wanted it to be a surprise. I do things like this when he is away. I don't know if he fears what I will do when he is away, or if he likes the surprises he gets when he comes home. This one he loved!